Peel & Co. The Peel family had established themselves as international traders in Egypt before the reign of Queen Victoria. Peel and Company, cotton and wheat merchants, traded from the major Mediterranean port of
Alexandria. From 1882,
Britain was the dominant power in Egypt, and the Peels had concomitant social power and responsibility. "Alexandria's British community, owing to its political dominance in Egypt but also to the considerable commercial success of many of its members, enjoyed a position of social prominence out of proportion to its numbers. Families like the Barkers, Peels and Carvers [...] were names to conjure with on the Cotton Exchange..." The Peels contributed to the foundation of
Victoria College, Alexandria (now part of the Alexandria Schools Trust). By the time
Miles Lampson, 1st Baron Killearn was
High Commissioner for Egypt, Peel & Co was "one of the biggest cotton firms of Alexandria". Over time, he became a director of several commercial companies and a leading member of the British community there.
World War I In
World War I Peel served with the
Wiltshire Regiment on the
Western Front in France, in the
Gallipoli Campaign, and with the
Middle East force in Egypt, Palestine and Syria. He had a very distinguished record, being mentioned in dispatches five times and awarded the
DSO and
MC. From being a private in 1915 he had been promoted to lieutenant colonel by 1918; in 1919 he was awarded the
Order of the Nile by the
Sultan Fuad I of Egypt.
World War II and honours During the Second World War, Peel was head of the British Community in Alexandria. On the recommendation of Sir Miles Lampson, Peel was awarded the
KBE. He was knighted in 1944. He was also honoured by another government, that of
Paul of Greece,
King of the Hellenes, who awarded him the
Grand Officer of the Order of George I in 1947.
Suez Crisis In 1952 Peel wrote to London warning of the impossibility of maintaining a secure base on the
Suez Canal; historian
Philip Mansel characterises his intervention as "tr[ying] to instil sense in the British government". The government ignored his advice, failed to withdraw British troops, and the
Suez Crisis ensued. Peel insisted on keeping Peel & Co as a British registered company and paying taxes to Britain, for he believed that the British government would help protect the company, should there be political instability. This it did not. After the Suez crisis,
President Nasser confiscated the company and its assets and expelled Peel and his family from Egypt. In 1958 Peel produced a report for the government on protecting British property in Egypt which was accepted but not acted upon. Peel was one of the main protagonists in the effort to secure adequate compensation for the British residents who lost their all. Killearn states that Peel was 'foremost in pressing the claims of the "small man" in priority to the larger claimants of who he was, of course, one of the biggest in the class of private firms'. ==Personal life==